“Bru-Bruno!”

A weak female voice struck Bruno’s ear.

It was a desperate cry from Eriel, who had never bowed her head to him, from when she was a noblewoman of the marquis family to now as a duchess.

It seems she hasn’t heard from the tutor yet!

Bruno blinked, pausing for a moment to rejoice.

After getting into the carriage, his thoughts on how to persuade Eriel became completely useless. It was a joyous occasion.

His brother would be detained for a while, and the tutor was injured and currently with a doctor.

No one would be able to enter or leave the duke’s residence for the time being, so this was truly the moment to turn the situation around.

Although Eriel had immediately seen through his shallow scheme when he visited the duke’s residence last time, she was fundamentally weak in nature.

She never spoke harsh words anywhere and didn’t use her prestigious family name to push people around.

Of course, high society praised Eriel for this, but Bruno didn’t think so.

Well, what did it matter? Even if he considered Eriel’s nature to be foolish, a woman’s nature doesn’t change easily.

Innate nature was not easy to change in the first place.

Look at her now.

When I approached her in a difficult situation, she let her guard down.

The weak woman probably only thought that I was using petty tricks because I didn’t want to go to the Eastern Continent as an envoy at the time.

She doesn’t know how evil people can be, or what thoughts lie within them.

As the daughter of a marquis family, she’s learned and smart enough to figure out my shallow tricks, but she couldn’t grasp the essence within.

“Lady Eriel, are you alright?”

Bruno approached Eriel with a deeply worried expression.

Perhaps due to the recent series of major events, Eriel’s face was pale.

Clear skin that seemed to reflect even the capillaries, with reddened eyes.

Eriel’s approach to Bruno with a face full of fatigue felt very slow.

“How did you… get in here, Bruno?”

Eriel’s voice trembled as she asked.

When a woman is at her weakest mentally, at times like these, she easily becomes moved by offered consideration and warmth.

So this was the most opportune moment to penetrate Eriel’s heart.

“I slipped some money to the guards outside. But more importantly, I have something to tell you.”

“Really? Then what about Damian? He must have gone to the imperial palace for investigation, didn’t you run into him?”

Bruno shook his head, maintaining a regretful smile.

“I went straight to the reception room… I couldn’t meet my brother.”

“Oh… I see.”

Eriel’s gaze dropped.

Bruno hesitated for a moment as tears welled up in her clear green eyes like glass beads.

“Lady Eriel… My brother will be fine.”

“Yes, Damian will surely… be alright. But why did you come to the duke’s residence, Bruno?”

Eriel’s eyes held a questioning look.

Has she not completely let her guard down?

“I have something urgent to tell you. It’s related to the princess’s kidnapping. I just… spoke with the investigator, but it seems the investigator has been bribed as well.”

“An imperial investigator was bribed? That’s… how could that be…”

Eriel looked up at Bruno with a surprised expression.

Clearly, by obscuring the essence with talk of definite bribery, Eriel’s guard that had been rising until just now visibly wavered as she was shocked.

“The situation seems quite serious. Since I can’t leave the duke’s residence, you’re the only person I can trust in this situation.”

Bruno nodded as he looked at Eriel’s wavering pupils.

“We should go to the reception room to talk first.”

This time Eriel nodded at Bruno’s words.

“Butler, please guide Bruno. I’ll go upstairs for a moment and come back down.”

“Yes, understood.”

The butler guided Bruno, and Eriel went up the stairs with a gentle eye greeting.

*

“I see,” Eriel responded to Bruno.

He kept stiffly raising his head and trying to look down at Eriel with a regretful face.
Eriel helped him feel even more so in response to Bruno’s behavior.

She lowered her gaze, pretending to be unsure, holding the teacup with both hands and looking down.

“But are you certain that one of those investors is behind the kidnapping, Bruno?”

“Yes, I am.”

As Bruno nodded with certainty, Eriel clasped her own hands and lowered her shoulders like someone praying.

“As this concerns Lucy’s kidnapper, I will spare no support as the duchess. So if you have reasons for your certainty, it would be good if you could tell me…”

Eriel said.

Probably all evidence would point to Bruno as the culprit in this kidnapping case.
He would need someone to help him, but the more powerful his backer, the fewer places he would have to turn to for help.

Someone with a justification to investigate the kidnapping case, and who could sufficiently counter even a formidable backer.
Eriel was probably the only person who met such conditions, so Bruno, thinking her foolish, would likely come here.

Bruno swallowed hard and rolled his eyes as if pondering.

Eriel, not rushing him, silently reached for her teacup.

If the noble faction was behind Bruno, it would be easy for him to speak.
The noble faction was originally a relationship that should be turned into enemies, so he could explain to Eriel while spinning a plausible story.
However, if he couldn’t answer easily, it meant there were even more complicated circumstances involved.

Which would it be? Bruno’s backer.

Eriel, holding a sip of tea in her mouth, slowly closed and opened her eyes, sensing the inaudible anguish of her counterpart.

She didn’t need an immediate answer.
Even if there was just a small ripple of hesitation about whether to speak or not, that small ripple would turn into a wave and open his lips.

“…There’s no particular reason, so I have nothing to say. I just thought that someone with a plan bold enough to kidnap Princess Genova wouldn’t have simply executed the plan, so it must be an investor who received a large sum of money.”

“I see. That alone is reason enough. If you give me the list, I’ll look into it myself.”

Eriel nodded.

Bruno looked down at the notepad Eriel held out, then slowly began to write down family names and names.

“…I feel at ease with you here, Bruno. It’s unsettling enough with the kidnapper, and now the duke being framed for rebellion, I can’t help but worry.”

“I’m family too, aren’t I? I’ll do my best to help as much as I can.”

Family. At that unfamiliar word, Eriel smiled warmly.

Bruno, who sent that family into danger, can you really say such words to me?

You, who instigated the tutor to try to kidnap our daughter, and who tried your hardest to send my husband to war, to be an envoy to the Eastern Continent.
And now that you’ve been abandoned by your backers, you come to me like this, trying to run away like a rat.

How ridiculous.

But Eriel met his eyes with a gentle smile.
The angle of her softly curved eyes created a beautiful smile that no one could doubt.

“Thank you, Bruno.”

Bruno, leaving the duke’s residence, got into his carriage jubilantly.

Things had gone much better than he had worried about.

He had been anxious when Eriel’s demeanor seemed off as he mentioned the fall from the horse, but this was the best scenario among all he had anticipated.
Eriel, trusting Bruno completely, would start digging into the people on the investor list, and this would soon reach that man’s ears.

“Whatever their scheme is, my brother and His Majesty the Emperor are comrades who fought on the battlefield together, so talks of rebellion will end up being just a happening. They won’t be able to escape the closing net of investigation from the thriving Genova duchy. As for my brother, if I tell him separately that it wasn’t me, he’ll believe me!”

Bruno smiled, staring into space with confidence.

“…As long as I don’t cause confusion in the middle, that bastard has no way out. Kehehehe.”

Bruno nodded slightly and leaned back against the carriage seat.

“Those sons of bitches. To think they were planning to abandon me. Hmph.”

*

After Bruno left the mansion, Eriel began climbing the stairs to the second floor. Behind her, the cries of several maids could be heard.

“Madam!”

“Madam! Madam! If we’re driven out of here…! I…! …mmph!”

However, their wailing cries didn’t last long. There wasn’t much expression on Eriel’s face as she climbed the stairs one by one.
At a glance, she seemed to be wearing a very small smile.

Very slowly, one step with each of their wails.

Like a child learning to walk for the first time, she moved very carefully and slowly, step by step.
Eriel moving on the velvet-covered stairs made so little noise that if someone had their eyes closed, they wouldn’t have expected her to be on the stairs.

It was very calm and quiet.

Dangerous because it couldn’t be heard, and unstoppable because it swept in silently.

The maids’ cries were the same. They didn’t reach Eriel.

Finally, when Eriel had climbed all the stairs to the second floor, no more cries could be heard.
Only then did Eriel turn to look down.
Eriel’s green eyes, looking down at the mansion hall from the top of the second-floor stairs, had turned ice-cold, but a gentle smile lingered at the corners of her lips.

Eriel nodded with satisfaction at the cleanly swept interior.

With that, Eriel turned her steps towards where Lucy was.
Below, the remaining personnel bowed their heads, maintaining silence for the duchess.
The cleaning would continue for a while.